


Home is not a place, but a person

by SeraphHT



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3
Genre: Baseball, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, One Shot, Prompt Fill, based on a mod i played, bc i kinda missed fo3, butch and charon are mentioned too, nostalgic, not really but it kinda sounds like something someone would request on the kinkmeme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27282988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeraphHT/pseuds/SeraphHT
Summary: Bryan Wilks is the little boy who survived the fire-breathing ant attack on Grayditch. Instead of leaving him alone there, the Lone Wanderer adopts him and brings him to live in Megaton. She forms a bond with him to fill the emptiness in her heart.
Relationships: Lone Wanderer & Bryan Wilks
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Home is not a place, but a person

**Author's Note:**

> This game is super old, but I was replaying FO3 and I kinda melted when this little boy said he wished the Lone Wanderer would stay and live with him in Grayditch. So I just had to install a mod that would let me bring him to Megaton.
> 
> Also, I miss back when FO3 fics were flooding the Fallout fanfiction collection.

“Hey Bryan, have you ever heard of baseball?” she asked, turning the knobs on her jukebox.

“Sure,” he nodded, dangling his legs off his heart-shaped bed in the middle of the living room. “I think I heard of it from those robots that flew around my old house. I remember Mr. Wilkins really didn’t like them much.”

Finally, she tuned in to Galaxy News Radio and dreamy music filled her romance-themed Megaton home. “Wanna play baseball?” she asked with a smile and an arched brow.

Bryan was uncertain. “Didn’t you just get back from a really long trip? Aren’t you tired?”

Her smile faded a little. The bed dipped as she sat next to him and ruffled his hair. “I know Dogmeat and I aren’t always home,” she said, a little melancholic. “I’m sorry for that.”

“No, that wasn’t what I meant at all,” Bryan hastily insisted, leaning towards her to meet her eyes. “I’m not sad that you’re always gone, actually I miss you a lot! I just worry that you’re not getting enough rest because you always look so tired. Besides, I have Wadsworth and all the other people in Megaton to keep me company.”

“Yeah, it’s nice to be around people, but nothing beats being around your favourite person,” she replied, finally meeting his gaze with a small grin.

Surprised, Bryan felt his cheeks heat up just a little. “I-I’m your…?”

“Yeah, you’re someone to come back to,” she stood up, whistling to summon Dogmeat. The dog ran down from upstairs with a baseball in his mouth.

Bryan giggled as Dogmeat licked him enthusiastically, happy to see him after many weeks of travelling. He scratched the dog’s neck as Myla placed a cap on his head.

“What’s this?” he asked, looking up from under the cap as she walked towards the door.

“My dad gave that to me on my 10th birthday,” she said, “and I think you should have it.”

“Really?” Bryan beamed as Dogmeat barked excitedly in response.

“Yes,” she smiled, opening the door and brandishing a baseball bat. “That cap and this bat were the first things I grabbed on the morning I left the vault. They were on my desk.” She paused slightly. “Used it to play baseball with Dad.”

She glanced at the bat almost sadly, but he could see the sadness disappear the moment he walked up to her with the baseball in hand and a grin on his face.

“You’ll teach me how to play, right?”

* * *

“Myla?” he quietly called out, voice as tiny as a mouse as he pushed her bedroom door open. She was curled on her bed with her back facing the entrance. As soon as he stepped in, her sobbing stopped. “Are you okay?”

He had never been in her small room before. His eyes were immediately drawn to the picture frame on the bed. There was a man in the picture, smiling next to a girl who was obviously Myla. She was wearing the same baseball cap she had given him.

“Bryan,” she said, her voice soft but rough, as though she had not spoken for ages. With a little struggle, she rolled to her other side to look at him. Her cheeks were lined with tears and her eyes were a little red.

He sat on the chair by her desk, slightly startled when she laid eyes on the picture and began to cry again, burying her face in her hands.

Almost on instinct, he went up to her and sat on her bed. He comfortingly patted her as she cried, avoiding the fresh stitches near her shoulder blade. She seemed badly injured. The crying didn’t seem to help ease the physical pain either.

“He’s dead, Bryan,” she mumbled, gasping for air and in pain between intense sobbing. “I found him and he fucking died in front of me.”

He swallowed, unsure what to say. When his own father died, he had been too tired to grieve. He went straight to numbness, and even that quickly faded after Myla adopted him.

He remained silent as she rolled back to her initial position, breathing sharply in pain. “He… he didn’t even know anything,” she said quietly, the tears still falling. “What I went through to find him. Everything I did that’s on the radio. Or even why I left the vault. He didn’t make the time to know. Then he died.”

There were a few minutes of silence. Bryan left the room and procured a bottle of purified water from Wadsworth before returning to the room.

“When was the last time you drank clean water?” he asked, a playful lilt in his tone that softened the despair in her eyes. He helped her sit up and carefully aided her to drink.

“Thank you,” she said, a little hoarsely.

A few more moments of silence passed as he sealed back the bottle. Then, he turned to her. “When everybody in Grayditch died, I ran around begging for people to help me and a lot of them refused because I couldn’t pay them. I really felt alone.”

He pulled out the baseball cap he gave her, and wiped away the tears that streamed down her cheeks at the sight of it. “I felt lonely again when you were done helping me and was going to leave, but then you let me live with you.”

Glancing at the picture, he continued, “You grew up with your Dad. He still lives with you, in your memories and the things you have the remind you of him. I know you feel alone. You’ve probably been feeling that way ever since you left the vault.”

He held her hand, hesitated, then gave it a small comforting squeeze. “But you aren’t, you know?”

More tears flowed down her cheeks, but this time she cracked a tiny smile.

* * *

“Wait, where are you going?” Bryan ran after her, nearly tripping over the metal obstructions in the cursed narrow hallways of Rivet City. He barely caught up with her brisk walking. “Why are you leaving me here?”

She stopped and met his eyes. “I’m not abandoning you,” she said firmly. “I just might be gone for a very long time. Longer than usual. Maybe. So, I’m leaving you with Vera. At least I know for sure that you’ll be safe.”

“But I don’t want to be with Vera,” he scowled, forming fists in his hands. “You disappeared for so damn long the last time, and I’m thinking you’re dead, then you show up, drag me to Rivet City and leave me here? This isn’t fair at all!”

“Bryan…” she frowned.

“You’re becoming just like your dad!”

“What?” she snarled. “Not fair? I gave you shelter and food. Why didn’t you tell me earlier that you have a cousin in Rivet City? You said you didn’t have anybody left. If I knew, I wouldn’t have wasted resources on you and I’d never have brought you to Megaton.”

Bryan flinched like he had been struck. Immediately her face softened.

“I’m so sorry,” she sighed, voice laced with regret. She kneeled down and looked him in the eyes. “Look, I’m going to go reclaim Project Purity with the Brotherhood. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out.”

Bryan could feel his heart plummet. He swallowed, not brave enough to maintain her determined gaze. “When are you going to come back?”

She didn’t answer. Instead she hugged him tightly, almost awkwardly in her clunky combat armour. But her tight embrace was enough to make him cry.

“I’m gonna leave Dogmeat with you again and I’m taking Charon with me before I go,” she ruffled his hair. “Charon’s a tough motherfucker, right? You said so yourself. And besides, you know Dogmeat hates it when I’m gone too long, so I’ll be sure to come back as soon as possible to avoid his wrath.”

That made him smile a little and he hastily wiped a tear away. “Aren’t you… bringing Butch?”

“No, he’s a wimp,” she rolled her eyes and he giggled. She gave him a warm smile. “Only the strongest can defeat the Enclave. That calls for a very tall, shotgun-wielding ghoul.”

“And you,” he added, still a little sad. “I always knew you were a hero, but I wish you weren’t the one everybody needed.”

She smiled a little. He could see the tiredness in her eyes.

“I’ll be back for you, I promise,” she kissed his forehead and stood up. “Take care of Dogmeat, and play baseball with Butch. Tell him he has no choice but to play with you, because that’s the baseball bat that killed the radroaches attacking his mother. He’ll recognize that it’s mine.”

She walked away. “See you soon, Bryan.”

He watched her leave in silence, then returned to his room, back to where Dogmeat was waiting for him with a wagging tail and a baseball in his mouth.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed. Do leave kudos. :)


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